I'm subbed to a few gardening/ homesteading channels that I enjoy watching, and often learn new things from, BUT most of the channels are in more temperate zones, and while seeing green in their recent videos brightens my day, it's also nice to see someone's land that looks brown, soggy, and cold just like mine is right now to snap me back to reality, but to also give me hope, because I know spring will be here soon. (I'm in Ohio zine 6a as well). I say all of this to say, it's good to know I'm not behind in my planting schedule, and like you, I'm constantly planning for the gardening season and projects. Tulips and hyacinths are popping up through the ground, so I know spring is just around the corner. Your parents' property is beautiful. I tend to overthink as well, last year I kinda let go and just "did" and accomplished so much more with my garden, not perfect, but it provided an abundance of food nonetheless. I love chipdrop! Thanks for the video and for sharing your plans with us. 🌱🌱🌱

Your Dad had the right idea. My Wife’s Dad stacked some rocks around a buttercup and showed it to everyone that came to visit.

OMG! YOUVE NEVER GROWN MUSHROOMS?! im so excited for you its the best thing ever! its so easy and the pride you get from growing this weird alien...i am obsessed! im struggling with an outdoor bed bc humidity issues but im getting really good with the indoor blocks. i love giving the blocks or spawn as gifts. i know youre going to have a blast growing them! my favorites are any oyster mushrooms or lions mane. good luck with all your plans this year!

There is no way to get a perennial bed right from the start, but that's also what makes it interesting. It's all an experiment because every planting bed is different. My approach is: give whatever ought generally to do well a try and double down on what thrives.

We enjoy eating fiddleheads in the spring. Ostrich ferns (Matteuccia Struthiopteris) might grow well in some of your shadier areas. They do spread though! Preparation: Wash fiddleheads really well, boil for 15 minutes, cool down in cold water (blanched), transfer to skillet and sauté in olive oil with a little garlic, serve with a light squeeze of lemon juice or a light coating of balsamic glaze - yum!

"I tend to overthink the garden." Glad to hear I'm not the only one doing this Jenna! Best of luck planning.

My "project" is to relax more.....Try It ! LOL Happy Planting 🤣

..lol..”I can’t seem to stop…”. The motto of every dedicated gardener…😉

Dear Jenna.. Thanks for this video. I have a few random thoughts. 1. Consider using pressure treated lumber for your raised beds. The chemical formula has changed several years ago such that chromium, copper and arsenic levels are basically non-detectible in the soil next to current pressure treated lumber. There are several videos confirming this. Nonetheless, the lumber still deteriorates in 7-10 years, since I have been using it. 2. Consider using the shaded side of your home solely for perennial flowers. Besides the classic recommendation for Hosta, I have great luck with Japanese Andromeda, and Desdemona Lingularia, which are bulletproof and beautiful. I will send you some plants if you want them. 3. I have two German Shepherds, and I don't know how your chickens can free range. Mine keep the rabbits at bey, at the cost of having to keep my chickens cooped up i.e. they can no longer free range. Kind Regards. Craig

Hi Jenna...I LOVE YOUR VIDEOS !!!! I am in Medina County northern Ohio....I have been gardening since about 5 years old...with my Grandfather. I am 79 and have physical challenges so...no more large gardens!! Last year my husband & I "moved" our garden to our south facing deck by way of 4 large stock tubs! I now sit on my garden stool and can still dig in the dirt and grow veges. Your videos are SUCH A BLESSING...you encourage me to try new & different things...your love of growing is evident and joyful!! Just wanted to...THANKYOU !!!!

Great video. Ohio Prarie Nursery is an amazing resource for Ohio native perennials and they are a wealth of knowledge about specific sites. I'd suggest reaching out to them on your flower beds.

Your parents property is absolutely BEAUTIFUL!! I always love looking at gardens that have been built up over years and how they have matured ❤️

Flower beds : you can start a mix of annual (perhaps self seeding) and perennial. You won’t have so much pressure

Where i live in TN most if not all lumber in contact with the soil only last about three to five years due to ants, termites and moisture. My raised beds are made of metal. I also use plastic food grade buckets and grow bags. So the most important thing is knowledge of the area you are growing in. I also have a Bermuda grass problem. The Bermuda grass even works i's way into the grow bags so I use them on my deck in large plastic totes . The grow bags sit in low-sided totes that have water drainage holes about two inches up from the bottom so they don't overfill in a heavy rain. The raised beds go about six inches down to help keep the Bermuda grass from coming in the bottom and about 18 inches up to keep the Bermuda grass from coming in the top. It might be over kill, but it helps keep me from spending days upon days fighting the Bermuda grass out of my crops. It is even more important around any perennials. Bermuda grass has killed off my strawberries, taken over my blackberries and I have just put more and higher barriers around my blueberries. I want so much to mover to an area without BERMUDA GRASS!!!!!!

"I can't seem to stop" (re: new garden beds) so true! I have a painted jug of water in my mini greenhouse that I suspect helps with overnight temps! But I'm on a much smaller scale 💚

About rejuvenating clay soil. My experience on clay soil is that I need to use a heavy layer of mulch in the winter spring and fall. At least a foot. This enables the microbes and worms to work more of the year because the soil is insulated and kept moist. I also shoveled the rows onto the beds first and filled in the rows with wood chips. They act like a sponge and decompose fairly rapidly. My soil is still heavy, but grew plants well, the first year. My soil was so hard that a walk behind rototiller wouldn't penetrate it. I had a friend flip the massive chunks of clay over with a fork lift. Thats when I knew I had a huge problem. 8 months later, I had an amazing garden. Try it.

If you can locate "basket" willow, a very effective, cheap barrier is a "growing willow" fence. 1 branch upright, 1 branch diagonal, woven after spring planting. The branches are just pushed into soil that's been softened. Second choice could be using weeping willow tree branches done in basket weave along the lower edges. As for "heat sinks" around that greenhouse bricks, either dark in colour or painted with black, dark blue, etc placed on the south perimeter should moderate the temperature. 3, maybe 4 high depending on the size.

Greenhouse heat suggestion: stack hay around the outside of the greenhouse, blocks wind, allows a growning area on the hay for potatoes and more later, is an insulator, cheap, usable in other parts of the yard. couple that with a heat source and the added insulation should help.

It's refreshing to hear a familiar accent and see a garderner facing the same, soggy, cold clay soil hehe.

My husband and I just finished two hinged hoop covers for raised beds. It has already made access so much easier, no more clip on and take off covers. I think more will be in my future.

Fences! Gates! Clay! Oh My! 😂 Moving fence is an annual spring workout for us😂 If we don’t have time for gates we leave a section of tall fence that we can open wide. I have many new varieties and huge amount of WS jugs and husband says, “Where are they all going?” Me, “Everywhere!” 😅 We are in the second year of starting small orchard and it’s growing again this year. Last year was some hardscaping like grape arbor to have a place to get out of the sun. I’m sticking with in ground wide raised rows it will be easier to irrigate and to set up irrigation vs. raised beds and more real estate path free. I am not a no till, I like to lightly till as I believe the air does it good. The water source is not to close so we have a lot of hose. My suggestion is if you are want to continue using raised beds instead of in ground wide rows I would Not use wood again. We used reclaimed corrugated metal and my husband showed me that it can be scored and snapped to cut it for lengthwise, but we have to cut width for lengths. A PVC pipe can be fit to cover sharp edges or wood toppers. Our lean to greenhouse is on our list to refurbish. We have reclaimed refrigeration building panels that are 4” thick that I will dig down and use for base and about a foot on sides above ground. Inside the pit will be laid 4” plastic drain pipe surrounded by heat holding brick/stone, whatever I come up with and fill in cracks with gravel of some sort to prevent wildlife nests. I plan to pump hot air from roof to floor to store heat. I might line the greenhouse shed wall with dark brick as well as floor. There was an old solar project years ago that used aluminum cans painted black inside a box that allowed air to move through and it was attached to an open window so might fashion something like that to pipe hot air down to floor. New polycarbonate and vents with a few operable storm windows and door. The last touch would be solar and wind power bank to run fans, heater, lights. We currently use this set up on the ‘Man Shack’😅. It’s the special batteries that are the expense. This small greenhouse 6x8 is easy to heat, but need a couple more feet. Did water jugs ect and not worthy and they were black. They still use room, can freeze and get algae. Only way I could see jugs useful is if there was a cold frame box built in front open to greenhouse, but that’s where my greenhouse house roof sheds snow. I thought I would like that, but no can do. It’s also crowded there as the asparagus and room hog strawberries are nearby. We have too many cloudy days for water to work, but solar, wind still work. It’s cloudy right now 32.8 and GH is 46.2*F with no improvements or heat. If you haven’t already get a remote temp station that can monitor and alarm you of changes in temp and humidity-it has been a great learning experience-mine is not connected to smart phone and works great. No room for large anything and not doing smelly compost mess. Only adding a couple feet to GH, but the north wall of garden shed is key. Just want an easy to heat seed starter house. For shade area I could see azaleas and rhododendrons. Caution about bramble berries. I’m thinking of a low tunnel to avoid having to cover up early spring crops only. It’s tough to get things planted early enough when spring is March 20th to June 20th and snow and freezing threatening most of March and April then unbearable heat. Our poor husbands😂😂. Does yours say, “How much more?”😂😂. They sure do like those great tasting meals all winter. And I rarely go grocery shopping only for the basics we don’t produce. Mine doesn’t mind he just jokes about my uncureable addiction.😅 I have quite a few bare roots arriving In April same time as our chickens. We use to raise them and are at a different location now and need to get things set up. Going to put more of those reclaimed refrigeration panels to use for coop. Things are SO Expensive! And everyone wants to sell something and the only money I want to spend is on plants and seeds and my books on propagating and seed saving. I need ROI=Return On Investment. 💥⚡️💥Heads up on saving seeds==I was just informed a bare root plant will be unavailable because of crop failure! 💥⚡️💥This was a Hardy climbing rose, not a necessity, but for beauty and pollinators. Now if such an indestructible plant had crop failure, just think if it happens to seeds! We need to start saving seeds and I praise Luke in a video he made about doing just that because of disasters And he sells seeds! I’m concentrating on many varieties to find which ones do the best for me and I hope they are heirloom. Once I find those varieties I won’t have to worry too much about cross pollination, but I need to get or make some of those blossom bags. Those 2 books on seed saving and propagating are pure GOLD to me. Oh it’s going to be a busy busy year!🎉. WI, Z5a.

We live in Central PA, and had an incredibly mild February allowing us to get an early start on a new Currant/Gooseberry Bed. We are still digging out clay, but will soon be placing logs to create a Hugelculture Bed. After the Currants are transplanted, we are planting Elderberries in the old Currant Bed where they were getting sun scald. We also have Apricot Trees coming in April.

Wet spot : you can plant basket willow or poplar, clumping bamboo (still protect from runners) r any stake-growing operation...

Hi Jenna, You truly have a lot of energy. You even garden at your parents' place. Amazing! Best, Albert from SF

Hey Jenna I have a passive solar greenhouse but there are aspects you could use in a smaller greenhouse such as heat sinks with thermal mass - mainly being water. If you have access to tidy cat buckets or even milk jugs. Fill those with water and place them all over the bottom levels of the shelves. They will warm up during day and keeping the inside cooler and then release the heat at night. Won’t solve your problem completely but I have a few 55 gallon drums I have filled with water and I place plants on top of those that I want extra heat at night. If the containers are painted black helps even more. Another thought is getting a solar generator like an eco-flow and a panel - soak up the sun during day to charge the battery and use that to run like a heat lamp at night. I did that and use it to run my grow lights after the sun goes down to give them a little more light as seedlings. Free energy! And when ya don’t need to it for greenhouse can be used for other things like camping.

"Plant Abundance" on KZfaq has used a small aquarium heating thing to heat a medium water container to add ambient heat.

To heat your greenhouse you could try using a solar pool heater and a 65gal drum... that's my plan for my chicken pen/greenhouse plan for this summer...up here we get -40C sometimes and I don't want to rely on electric heat lamps for my chickens. I haven't done this personally, but there are people around here who have done it successfully, you do have to run a pump...but a 12v pump, on a battery with a solar panel last's for a long time :)

Just a low-cost tip on the greenhouse. Pile-up hay or straw bales around the greenhouse. All the way up the north wall, since you won't get sun there till the middle of the summer. And one bail high around the other walls. A greenhouse like that is never going to perform well in the winter. Just way too much heat loss and there's no real way to control it on a greenhouse like that. You can put in as much solar mass as you want but I don't think you really going to absorb enough energy to offset what is lost the poly panel's at night up to the sky. I'll try to post some pics of my passive solar greenhouse project on your Facebook page. I have figured out that winter greenhouse and spring/fall green houses need to be very different in our Northern climate.

I've been advised to stack bales of hay around the exterior of the greenhouse. Sink them about six to eight inches below the ground and it will help insulate the house and will also release heat from decomposing. You would need to replace them or add on top of them yearly, I think. Just a thought I'm thinking about doing. I don't have the plastic/glass one. I have a cheap one that is essentially plastic that has to be replaced frequently. They disentigrate over time and leave holes all over it.

My list of projects for this spring pales in comparison to what you have going on. I will be redoing my 20X8 jumping worm infested bed. Will put up a couple cattle panel arches and the rest of the bed will be a key hole type of raised bed to allow access for weeding. In the front, my cattle panel trellis needs permanent beds, used straw bales the 1st year and grow bags last year. Going to try and use metal roofing for those beds. I also need to set in concrete a couple 4x4's to support my everbearing raspberries, I never knew they would grow to be over 7 feet tall. Because the price for treated lumber has been so high and cedar is untouchable for me, I have been using house wrap to line my pine boards. It is only going on the 4th year, but no signs of decay so far, just a thought. You have beautiful gardens! Enjoy your videos, Stay Well!!!

We like using plastic wood used for decks. My husband also built some waist high beds using metal sheeting.

I'm building a greenhouse and I'm going to build in a rocket mass heater. It's for wood burning but because of how the burn chamber is constructed it's extremely efficient with less wood. The smoke travel through a pipe build in in a stone and clay bench which retains heat. You should check it out

Here in MD Ive only been gardening since 2019 and growing every year and expanding what i have been doing. Starting in 2019 i started with peppers and tomatoes and now I'm up to growing many root crops, greens, brassicas, peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, and many other vegetables. This year I'm growing more potatoes and trying mushrooms via grain spawn, sawdust spawn, and plugs. I too have found North Spore for the spawn but there is also Field and Forest mushroom company you should check out as well. I enjoy learning organic and sustainable methods from your videos to apply to my garden. Each year I've been doing more projects for my garden like raised beds, tables, compost barrel tumbler, rain barrel, DIY ollas, and many other projects. I cant wait to get this season of crops going.

You and your folks have such beautiful places!

Last year was the third in a series of garden expansions that included cardboard and woodchips over the entire 20'x125' area. I also reconfigured the garden and added three more trellises. This year I am lowering the work, but there is always something that needs done. I mainly do container gardening, and a lot of the totes were trash rescues a few years ago.when I found about twenty 27 gallon ones. A lot of them are now cracking, so they are being replaced with heavy duty HDPE forty gallon totes that I am painting to increase uv protection. I would love to do in ground gardening, but a buried petroleum pipeline under the backyard makes that more risky.

I watched some of your videos very informative. especially since I also live in Ohio and have clay soil. Some things I already do, but you showed some things I was going to but will not now, basically you saved me a lot of time and money thank you.

I would love to see a Q&A from you! And I would love to learn about your dogs! I love seeing them in your videos.

You make me smile. We are alike in many ways. Overthinking is one of them. The things that came to mind while watching this video... Don't stress out about the "permanent" plantings. There is no such thing. Okay, I know what you mean and I probably will be in the same boat in a month or so. 🤣 As huge as these gardens are you must have a good bit of help to keep them up as well as you do. If you tell me you don't have a lot of help then I have to say you are amazing and it's no wonder from time to time some spaces get away from you. My raspberries will be here in a day or two, and looking out at the 4 or 5 inches of snow we have on the ground (WOW it is green at your place) AND along with my raspberries I am getting... another winter storm ! It's forecast to dump a half a foot of new snow on what I have. Any thought of planting bare root raspberries in this weather?!

Hi Jenna, Thank you for sharing your "mistakes" with us. We can certainly learn from your experiences. Best, Albert from SF

This year I am going to strategically grow the Sudan grass to create some partial shade in my garden.

I didn’t know about the mulch delivery link up. We have so many trees and leaves on our new property I think we might invest in a chipper / mulcher for long term.

All great projects. I’m making two 9’x4’ hot frames so I can over winter/ extend my growing seasons. I live near Colonial Williamsburg and they have a few in their historical garden which is where I got the idea.

I can give you a suggestion that could get you more than what you can sell eggs for. I have been doing it for almost 15 years. Barter your eggs. I have found that taking eggs to farmers markets and local produce stands I can trade for fresh veggies and scrapes as well. Cost for cost you can typically get more vegetables than cash could buy you. Additionally, most produce stands have rotten vegetables that the chickens eat or you can compost. You may have to search around but they are out there. Once you find a place it's a gold mine. Another thing I do is trade my neighbor eggs for farm fresh beef. The bottom line is people are willing to trade more than give up cash. But you couldn't sell eggs then buy what you could trade eggs for.

Really appreciated your thoughts and tips, and suggestions.

Hi Jenna, look up on compost heating. I have seen some gardeners on KZfaq using this method to heat up their greenhouse naturally. Making a compost heating is my project for this year 😄

Have you considered a walipini? Probably a longer-term project but I've heard good things-- you bury half the green house underground to take advantage of the more stable underground temperatures. I'm interested in one myself but haven't found a ton of info about building them online.

Hey, you going to do an 2023 gardening afterglow video? One where you look back and state what went well, and what you not going to do in the future? This one is good too because you had envisioned plans of what you were going to do. Well? Spill! How'd that work out? Those are nice because we can maybe relate to similar issue we also might be having. Plus, we get to see the big, big, picture of the whole garden(s).

If you’re looking for inspiration for your front bed - “The Living Landscape” by Rick Darke & Doug Tallamy, My yard bakes in the hell hot sun All. Day. Long. I’d love to have a spot like that with some mature trees!

hosta, strawberrys, herbs

That made me tired just listing to all your to-do plans Jenna. 🤣🤣

"and this kale that refuses to die", that made me LOL

To heat your greenhouse you should use a survival mini woodstove for yurts, they are only like $100 on eBay..just stoked the fire in the evening and then put it on low so it smolder throughout the night keeping it warm in there.....As for your new mushroom garden you should grow your mushrooms on large hardwood logs freshly cut and let them set 3 months before inoculating because the tree is still producing anti-fungal properties for three months after being caught and you don't want to use and already dead tree because it already has a mycelium Network that's taking it over, you want to add a fresh mycelium network of what you desire so it doesn't have to compete..you want to use logs for your mushrooms because after inoculating you can have 10 years of mushrooms while the log decays, if you are growing mushrooms in bags you have to keep buying mushroom food and sterilizing it or buy it already done and then there is the waste from the plastic bag and in my opinion mushrooms are more hardy growing outside in nature than inside a bag......you might like electroculture gardening, stick copper rods in the ground near your plants so that they can absorb the conductivity in the air, the copper rod stimulating the plants roots with natural electricity...If you like that you might like magnetic gardening, place a magnet with the Northside of the magnet facing up next to your plans and put a rock on top of the magnet so it doesn't flip over while your watering it because you do not want south-facing up because it will mess up the magnetism of the plant and make the terpenoids and flavonoids have more of a chemical nature to them making your food taste like Windex.

LOL! I can relate, never ending to- do list and the constant desire ever year to expand the garden.

i'm glad i stopped having issues to do with raised beds, when i ditched them. now i can freely change rows if i wish to. i can set up and take down easily trellises and other supports on any rows or part thereof. i dont have projects; i just grow veggies with minimal work required.

A other plant idea for your “flower beds” is witch hazel. We are in the same zone and have very much appreciated adding witch hazel as an understory tree in our Japanese garden….

Near term projects for me: rebuild several rotted beds (pressure treated lumber maybe???), fix the soil in my one bed that always seems to underperform (got a bad batch of topsoil that evidently is clay soil), FINALLY get my lazy rear end to build a couple of cold frames. We'll see about that last one....

I recently saw someone using a small compost system to generate heat in a greenhouse. Using a garbage can compost system will generate enough house for a small greenhouse

Just got my 1st hardy Kiwi for zone 7 in NJ. Glad to hear you may try it also.

Oh my word we need a mushroom foraging video 👀 I’ve heard some folks say that a compost pile in a cold frame can help to heat it, but I’d guess it would have to be huge…and enclosed.

Looks good! T-post and welded wire are great! Super versatile and long lasting. 👍

many good ideas in this video. My little project I am working on is to grow different types of alpine strawberries. I ordered some seeds and have them germinating under a growlight, and I ordered a mr. stacky planter so I can put them on my porch, and hopefully eat them before the animals. I have a strawberry bed, and have had no luck with it, chipmunks have set up camp there, also birds, eat what little harvest I have before I can get to them, so I am going in a new direction with the alpines.

I love how knowledgeable you are ❤️ We can all learn SOOO much from you! I really hope you consider putting the hardware cloth under your new raised beds for rodent protection 👍 I would LOVE to watch you grow all kinds of mushrooms 😋

I too am starting to rearrange my garden beds, I recently aquired a compact tractor with a 54" bucket so I need to make my aisles wide enough for my tractor. As for your upcoming raised bed hoops I've had a new experience with mine this winter. I have bug mesh covering my brassica beds and heavy snow and ice issures this year collapsed them 3 times. I'm considering making more ridged frames. The pvc tubes alone don't hold up to weight. Lastly, the cheapest and in my opinion the best option for heat storage woud be gallon jugs of water on the backside of your lower shelves. That area is difficut to reach so placing them there would be a good use of that space. Just put them around the entire perimeter of the greenhouse.

Hello Jenna. Great job on the greenhouse. Just like you, I can't wait for spring to officially arrive to get my garden started 🌼🌼🌻🌻

Thanks for another awesome video. I started a second garden last fall and have been cautious about laying it out for long term use and not congest it - your videos definitely have helped. I also started indoor gardening with LED grow lights and for my first time starting seeds, I find it difficult to get the seedlings to grow past 1"-2" in the 72 plug trays. I used indoor potting soil and haven't started fertilizing as the seedlings I think are too small. I don't have dampening off issues but maybe not enough light. I did just increase the time from 12 hours to 14 hours. Maybe that will help. Schooner Farms is just down the road from me and Don is a great guy to work with. Thanks Again for the great videos.

I have an 8x10 polycarbonate greenhouse in NH and have done well with the Bio Green PAL 2.0 to keep it to 36-38 F overnight for early seedlings at this time of year.

I have a 6 x 8 greenhouse and we just put a small heater in it today. It worked great last year. I tried so many things last year before putting in a heater but nothing worked, only the heater. We keep it set on low, just so it never drops below freezing.

Cool video Jenna, thank you.

Wonderful video, as always. I'm so glad to see you've widened your gate!!! LOL The cattle panel arch looks great! Two thoughts...first, bravo on your dad for his "Wilderness." He is providing invaluable habit for insects by just allowing things to grow wild in that area. And second, if you are looking for ideas for the flowerbeds by your house, natives are the way to go. If you've not listened to any of the presentations by Dr. Doug Tallamy here on KZfaq, those are very sobering and eye-opening. You could plant natives in your flower bed and add your flowerbeds to the map of the "Homegrown National Park" movement.

Hi Jenna, sounds like lots of good projects this year, thanks for taking us along on the journey! A few things: 1. We made the decision to use pressure treated wood. All the current research points to it not being a health issue. I respect the idea of an abundance of caution as well, but ultimately we decided to make the 20 year investment in pressure treated 4x4 lumber beds. 2. For a greenhouse heater that won’t necessarily be on all the time look into the “MyBuddy” propane heater. You can connect it to a larger propane tank and it will last about a week or so. If the goal is to just heat occasionally this could be a good option! We use them for tents when camping in the Fall so don’t have direct greenhouse experience but I think it would be a good option. 3. For season extending infrastructure I just started using EMT conduit instead of PVC for hoops and have been very impressed. Mounted to the wooden beds they are extremely sturdy and solid. I made a short video about bending the 10’ long EMT conduit recently. Excited to see how everything grows this summer!

What about putting a hotbed on each side wall. 2 for 1- added heat to greenhouse and provides you a place to overwinter

I was really happy to see a new video from you! Projects for me here in western Colorado desert are always to do with irrigation water management. We use furrow irrigation from the local canal system, and I'm narrowing my row width from about 28" to something like 18-20". The other big project is propagating trees and shrubs to finish building the ~2 acres of mixed trees, shrubs, and wildflowers.

Love the video Jenna! Thanks for sharing. Sister you better wear that hat!!!

84 Lumber used to sell redwood for less than cedar, and it lasts much longer. It would be worth a call, but they do have to order it, so plan a week ahead. Also, pull it apart, a friend of mine got some that looked worm eaten. They took it back and got him good boards, but who wants to haul wood home, unbundle it only to return it?

In the fall I extended growing in my hoop tunnel by doing several things where I was vertically growing San Marzanos, no tables: First, I put a brick path down the center. Second, I clipped row covers completely around my plants just before the temps dropped for extra protection, and to preserve ground heat which rises. I moved some of my large planters in which contained heat mass/ carryover. Last, I used one of those old fashioned radiator heaters that heats up water. It has 600 and 900 amp levels and a control dial, so I could adjust how much heat it put out. It would be ideal to run it on solar, if possible. I was surprised the difference even the lowest setting made, and I kept it on a timer. I have read about people using rocket stoves for risidual heat, though I have not. I'd like to find a simpler way to keep it heated, too, but this extended growing by 2 months.

I have a raised bed that gets just enough sun and thinking of turning it into a shade garden and start a new one in a sunnier area. I have a couple of maples growing in front of my current garden and i don't really want to cut them down. i love the wind block idea using trees and may try to do something similar on my 1 acre

Lady, that is an AWESOME garden! A cattle panel arch is on my wish list for my garden when I figure out exactly where I want it. I want to plant climbing roses on it. I want it for beauty than for vegetables. Maybe put a bench under it and have it for a sitting area in the middle...I'm not sure yet. Love your channel!

Hello, Jenna. Loved seeing all of the fun projects you have in mind. I wondered if you had any thoughts on the corrugated raised beds that are on the market now, as I've been considering a couple of those. Some of the projects that this little mammal will get to enjoy this year will be the building of more hugel beds for a few people, moving all of my raspberry plants to the front yard, and basically trying to revive one garden that is all clay and poor drainage. My mother is now asking me to build her her own replica of the Serpent Mound now, so thanks for that. 😜 Also hoping to plant more flowers that are bee and butterfly friendly. And the big thing I hope to accomplish - drum roll please - air layering a number of trees and bushes throughout the yard. Geekin' to try that this year. Hope you have a great week. Best of luck with all of your projects.

Hi, Jenna! Very enjoyable video to watch, thanks! Wood chips in new garden have been cooking since last year, fruit trees arriving this spring...food forest, let's gooooooo!

Wow you have so much going on! I’m jealous of all the space you have to use and experiment with in the two properties. The hugelkuktur reproduction of the serpent mound sounds rad!

Yes! you should absolutely get cold hardy kiwi, just not in that shady spot. Perhaps on your new entrance trellis, they like sun, also the chickens are big fans of the leaves. I think bulbs can be a good thing to plant in shady spots, especially if you don't want excessive maintenance. For berries, lingonberry and wintergreen could be nice. American cranberry can take the shade too.

Have you already heard of the Miyawaki Method? It might be something worth looking into when it comes to growing trees fast in a small space. I am also adding willows as a buffer or living hedge to keep the deer out of my property. Thanks for the channel, love following your garden journey here and there.

Such a fun video! I’m so excited to see your weather extension ideas come to life and the mushrooms! Your parent’s property is so awesome, love the wilderness area and your Moms pretty flowers in the footage from summer. I have the same small cold frame box as you do, I always look for it in your videos 😂 ours is currently in a raised bed over our in-bed worm composter to keep them warm.

Omaha, Nebraska. We are still renting so I am limited. Would love to have our own place. I guess I will have to live vicariously through you for now!

Im in portage county OH & have a harbor freight poly greenhouse with a floor made of pavers. We use a wood stove to heat our house so I put some embers/charcoal into a metal pale & place it in the center of the floor. It warms well but please be careful- its definitely a fire hazard. Hot water in jugs did not work for me

Great video. You've really developed a ton of expertise, but it's cool that you put your mistakes out there for everyone else to see and learn from. Cheers to a great 2023.

Wow! Big plans! Looking forward to your progress.

First and most important, thank you for this video. Might sound odd, but right now I don't feel quite so alone in my gardening ambitions. Thanks very much for the wood/wood chips link. Raised beds.... M'mm. When I started gardening, I ached with longing for those beautiful, wood-framed raised beds I've seen in books, magazines, and gardening videos, but my situation then (as now) imposed some constraints: urban/suburban, *old* neighborhood meaning built up, bounding the garden on four sides: house, and the three neighboring properties; and money, because at that point I could have built the beds, or I could have soil to put in them. In the end, I opted for modified French-style raised beds, which don't use hard sides of wood or stone or wattle (thought wattle looks really, really cool, though!) I'd read that the French pile up the soil in their [narrower than ours] raised beds, thwacking the sides and ends which slope inward toward the tops of the beds good and hard with the back of a spade or shovel blade to firm them, and then keep them planted. One advantage is, you can plant into the sides which increases the surface area/planting space just a tad, and the plants' roots help to hold the soil in place. It's in my mind (or in my imagination) that the wood sides could be added to the French style raised beds at a later time so you don't have to shell out that big wad of cash for cedar boards all at once if you'd prefer to replace the boards of one bed, and then the next one later, perhaps at the end of this season or the beginning of the following year's gardening season, or however it's convenient. Thistles. Not bull thistles, I take it? Too bad, that. I've read that bull thistles can be eradicated by cutting them below the bottom leaf, leaving something like ten inches of hollow stem, and then filling that "tube" with water and *keeping it filled* which causes the plant to rot. Seems as if right here a "YMMV" is in order. I haven't tried this one; haven't had bull thistles===plenty of sow thistles---although a friend who is not a neighbor does and has had for decades, determinedly believing that a power mower will solve that problem. My own projects for this season are...kinda puny, compared to yours, but goodness knows I'll be glad if or when I pull them off. 1) Shopping around for appropriate trellising for a pear tree which has yet to be purchased, and a second pear tree if I can figure out where it can be put. I'd like to espalier these because they need to be managed carefully and I need the space and can't have trees just doing their thing (reaching for the sky!), but I need an actual structure to do that. 2) Some serious, heavy-duty trellising for the two grape vines which are wildly and massively out of hand and out of control 3) Cold frame, and a hot bed, and these two might very well get put together. 4) A tiny, but level, *even* paved area right outside the garden shed to make it easy to get the lawn mower in and out of that structure. 5) A framework around one of the larger beds to allow for a hinged hoop over it; without actual, proper sides it seems silly to say, "Hinged hoop house" but season extension is sought! 6) At least one arched trellis over one of the paths; regrettably, cattle panels are out of the question, so another means must be found. 7) Bean tipis 8) Still planning to move the garden enclosure outward by only a foot and a bit in each direction, replacing the existing 4'4" tall mesh with 72" tall mesh. 9) There's a bed along one side of the house kind of like your flower beds immediately adjacent to your (it is *your*, yes?) house which needs attention and planning and some aesthetic improvement because right now it's filled with undisciplined rose shrubs, some very persistent English ivy, and an equally persistent grass that isn't lawn grass. I'd like to fill it in with garlic every year as garlic is supposed to be good for roses, preventing black spot (is that true?), but I might end up settling for a thick, thick mat of common chives which can be mowed on a high setting. Hopefully it'd look tidy and the chives, too, will keep the roses happy and possibly Japanese beetle free. 10) Permanent signs identifying each quadrant, as you and I have cyber-discussed earlier: Huey, Dewey, Louie, and Fred. (Or Fritz? Frank? Floyd?) And that's the list of good intentions, not prioritized. It feels as if every one of those "plans" is both the most important and the most urgent.

Great video! Hopeful for your current and future projects to cross the finish line. We're diving into mushroom farming this year, as well! Can't wait to see your results. We stay in almost lockstep with you throughout the Ohio growing season and greatly appreciate everything you share.

I have no idea if it would work but they sell reflective material that people place in tents and pop up campers to keep heat in or out. They’re similar to those made for your car window. Maybe they would help if you lined your greenhouse walls with them

Loved seeing your project plan for the coming year. Also, your parents property is dreamy!! I hope that we see more of it in the future, it's so inspiring!

Your raised beds remind me of mine except I use cedar. Cedar also rots when exposed to moisture. Bug safe but not moisture safe. The worms were having a good time. I went with a plain ground contact treated pine board and used a liner. The liner being an inexpensive sheet of black polyethylene at 6 mil thick as polyethylene is a food safe choice. I stapled the sheet to the inside of my boxes to keep the wood dry. The bottom is open but I have no Voles or other underground critter issues.

You have a lot of shelves in your green house. Have you thought of buying some cheap paver bricks and paving the shelves with those to use for heat energy storage?

Got to get to lecture, but I just made it to the pcm tiles. Brilliant! Thank you! And it's another NC company. Goodness. Oh, earlier on the paths. :) Both my brother and I committed to that last year. Watching the rest later. 👍

Absolutely love your goals for the coming year and especially the changes you did to the garden beds, can't wait to see how everything comes to life this summer! It's actually our first year growing so we're experimenting and decided to reinvest a month's food budget into seeds and see how much more food we can grow ourselves out of that same budget!

Always fun to watch what others are doing and you have a lot of doing to do lol. I always have to replace a raised box each year to keep up with the decay but I've been using metal instead of cedar lately since the lumber prices increased. It's about the same price but the metals should last longer. And your outside the fence log beds is exactly what I've been doing the last couple years and using them for garlic , onions and potatoes. Nothing bothered the potatoes I grew in those beds last year so hoping to continue to get away with that. I only have a couple small projects planned for this year but I did order shortcake raspberries from Jung and also sweet potatoes for the first time from Maine potato lady so looking forward in seeing how they do for me. Good luck!

Thank you! 2023 is the first year of growing with a greenhouse for me and I joined a local family owned farm’s CSA so I don’t have to grow ‘everything’. We are taking down the free pallet fence to put in an archway, expand the garden enclosed space and planting MANY more herbs to be perennial for harvesting/storing my own spices, making teas and tinctures. I’m most excited to fill my gardens with items not usually found in gardens around here. Toothache seedlings are awaiting a chance to get outside. 😊

I am so excited to hear you might try hardy kiwi, because it is one I would like to try as well!!

I use the electric oil filled heaters. Pretty efficient.

Oh my gosh your parent's place is amazing! If I ever get more planting space I'd love to have an area like your dad's food forest. I'd love to have the space to just try things out.